What is Love to Christ?

by Thomas Doolitle

Love shows the true character of a man, according to the object
which he loves more than anything else: for as is the love, so
is the man. According to his love, so might you confidently designate
the man. If he is a lover of honour, he is an ambitious man; a
lover of pleasure, a sensual man; and if he chiefly love the world,
he is a covetous man. If a man loves righteousness, he is a religious
man; if the things above, a heavenly-minded man; and if he love
Christ with a pre-eminent love, he is a sincere man: "Rightly
do they love you.," Song of Songs 1:4.

If Christ has our love, he has our all; and Christ never has what
he deserves from us, till he has our love. True love withholds
nothing from Christ, when it is sincerely set upon him. If we
actually love him, he will have our time, and he will have our
service, and he will have the use of all our resources, and gifts,
and graces; indeed, then he shall have our possessions, freedom,
and our very lives, whenever he calls for them. In the same way,
when God loves any of us, he will withhold nothing from us that
is good for us. He does not hold back his own only begotten Son,
Rom.8:32. When Christ loves us, he gives us everything we need--
his merits to justify us, his Spirit to sanctify us, his grace
to adorn us, and his glory to crown us. Therefore, when any of
us love Christ sincerely, we lay everything down at his feet,
and give up all to be at his command and service: "And they
loved not their lives unto the death," Rev. 12:11.